Menu | Rating System | Guest Book
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
(Older reviews archived alphabetically by artist name.)

         
       
         
 
Recording:
  Smash the Superstition  
 
Artist:
  Apocalypse Pow!  
 
Label:
  Pop Faction  
 
Release Date:
  summer 2003  
 
Reviewed by:
  PostLibyan  
         
 
Rating:
   
         
 
Review:
 

This amusingly named band is some sort of metal/punk/dance fusion act. Imagine lots of screaming. Imagine power chords. Imagine strong, prominent drumming. Add to that wierd keyboardy bits strewn about occasionally and you pretty much have the Apocalypse Pow! sound.

A perfect example is Smash the Superstition, which closes this EP. I guess this track is that electroclash stuff the kids talk about these days. you have keyboards, power chords, and people screaming "We came to dance, we came to dance". It has a fast beat, and you could easily pogo to it. In fact, it's energy is nigh unto infectious.

It is, however, the second track, It Makes Me Sexy When You Say That that stands out. This song takes the same elements (guitar, keyboards, screaming) and somehow ends up sounding just slightly different. This song is the unholy fusion of Black Sabbath and Yaz. Of course, all of the music on this EP san be described that way, but this track is the most fully realized of the 5 here.

The whole thing has great energy. The music really moves, and i bet these people are amazing in concert. Unfortunately, the EP only contains 13:39 worth of music. Barely enough to break a sweat.... Hopefully there will be more in the future.

One thing to note is that the recording has same wierdness to it. Specifically, the vocals are oddly echoed, noticably so when you listen on headphones. It is as if the instruments were recorded, and then the screaming was recorded on a separate track, all by it's lonesome in the studio, and then overdubbed into the songs. This makes for a very funny picture of the lead singer, all alone in the studio, wearing headphones and screaming uncontrollably.... I don't know if that is what happened, but at any rate the recording on the vocals does not sound "live" to me, whereas the rest of the music does. That said, this effect isn't really noticable until you listen on headphones. And, really, this type of music wan't meant to be listened to on headphones -- it was meant to be played loudly on the stereo, or blaring in your car, or throbbing over a club's sound system between bands.....

Overall, Apocalypse Pow! make exciting music. It is energetic, fun, and not too intellectualized. It certainly has it's place, and in that place, it does what it does quite well.

 
         
 
Related Links:
 

none available

 
         

Return to the top of this page. | Return to the Album Review menu.